The murder mystery is a classic plot structure, and has been written into SF settings many times, from classics such as Alfred Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit” and Pat Cadigan’s “Tea From An Empty Cup”, to Tade Thompson’s FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN. What are some of our favorite books in this genre? What books put a uniquely SFF twist on the locked room mystery or the unbreakable alibi, and use their setting to write mysteries that couldn’t be written outside the genre? I was the last person to expect that I would love to read mysteries.
As a kid, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and books like that bored me.
I loved Asimov and the other panoply of writers from the end of the 60s through the 1970s. But if you’d asked me if Asimov wrote mysteries, I’d have said, “No. He’s a science fiction writer!”
About six or seven years ago, I stumbled across Craig Johnson, who wrote the novels about sheriff Walt Longmire. I can’t tell you even how that happened, but I fell in love with Longmire – and I’m currently rationing the last few of his novels that I haven’t read!
What caught me? How come I never noticed that Asimov’s novels were mysteries – and I read Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and even have a copy of The Robots of Dawn from the Science Fiction Book Club. But I didn’t READ them as mysteries. I read them as “robot novels”.
I’m going to look at this today!
First, what caught me with Longmire? Why’d I even BOTHER TO READ THE FIRST BOOK? I am no fan of Westerns (REALLY NOT!), and I never really thought of myself as a “mystery reader”. However, an old friend of mine LOVED the books and because I respect him, I tried the first one – COLD DISH. I was hooked because first off, Longmire’s not a supremely confident, “just put a gun in my hand and I’ll bring justice to the Old West ‘cause I’m the baddest-assed Lawman in the West!” kind of guy.
He's Human – I mean, he’s Human in the best possible way. Somehow, Craig Johnson managed to write Longmire as a quirky, smart – I mean, the man quotes Shakespeare! – and not entirely sure of himself. He also trusts the dangdest people. Sometimes, when he does, my first impression is that the person isn’t WORTHY of trust.
But, Larson gets that, too. Sometimes Longmire makes mistakes in who he trusts and then there are dire results. Also, Longmire DOESN’T ESCAPE HIS MISTAKES OR COME OUT UNHARMED! Even in movies, characters often make mistakes and other people suffer. Most of the time, it’s Longmire who suffers – though, just like in real life, others pay the price for his mistakes. They also pay the price for his well-night-to-unstoppable sense of justice – his daughter Cady ends up paying one of those times.
In essence though, what is it that attracts me to that kind of story? First off is the mystery – don’t get me wrong, I LOATHE mysteries in real life! I need to know what’s happening and to whom. I don’t mean just like, MURDER mysteries, though I’ve tried my hand at one or two – my first sale to CRICKET Magazine was “Mystery on Space Station Courage” (November 1997). No murder, just some strange sounds that turned out to be from someone who was trapped and might die if Candace can’t figure out and convince others that there WAS a mystery!
Another story where I use elements of mystery and science fiction is “Dinosaur Veterinarian” (ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, November/December 2022). There you have a series of deaths seemingly caused by birds – which hinges on the fact that birds are relatives of the dinosaurs (doubters among you? Just go to the grocery store, and in the ethnic foods section, find a bag of frozen chicken feet! Don’t tell me that those feet DON’T have scales on them!) Anyway, my veterinarian character Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM [aka Doctor Scrabble© (Because in the game, J, Qu, X, and Z are the highest scoring tiles)] has to find out what’s hunting and killing soldiers from both North and South Korea, as well as an entire international group of birdwatchers…
Of course he solves the mysteries.
Recently, I discovered that Isaac Asimov loved writing SF mysteries as well. Despite reading his work for most of my adult life, I didn’t notice that he wrote mysteries until the movie, “I, Robot” hit the silver screen with one of my favorite actors Will Smith, playing detective Spooner. What MOST people don’t know, is that the actual story that the movie is based on was in ASIMOV’S Science Fiction. “Robot Dreams”, while it isn’t ANYTHING LIKE THE MOVIE, had the seed in it. The movie-makers just added a Human cop with a grudge against robots to make the MOVIE…seems more Human, cause, really, would YOU go see a movie about, say, a Wyoming sheriff…who was a ROBOT? I mean, really?
Anyway, I’ve discovered I enjoy mysteries – also like WATCHING them, too, in particular the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie.
But I think I like not only the logical order of mysteries, I like that the logic comes wrapped in fallible Humans…or even fallible robots. STAR TREK: The Next Generation’s Commander Data’s holodeck adventures as Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and I enjoy those as well.
While reading a bit for this article, I stumbled across this: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/its-simply-too-dangerous-to-arm-robots in which it explains how “San Francisco was embroiled in controversy earlier in December of 2022, over a proposal to allow police to deploy robots armed with deadly weapons. After initially greenlighting the technology, the Board of Supervisors reversed course due to widespread public outcry. For the time being, killer robots are banned in San Francisco, but the controversy there has put the issue in the national spotlight. People are increasingly aware that this technology exists and that some police departments want to deploy it.”
In a nutshell, people hated the idea and voted it down. Interesting, eh? Robots that can kill are NOT all right, but Humans who can kill are a-OK and we should be happy to sell them guns…maybe this world ISN’T ready for a robot detective yet. Then again, mostly when we think of a “robot detective”, we’re thinking of an ANDROID detective, a law enforcement officer who is built as an “humaniform” robot. But what about MACHINE detectives that don’t look anything like Humans, but are sapient and trained as police officers…what about them?
I'll be exploring this subject through stories more in the future! I'll let you know if I succeed...
Another Article I wrote on SF Mysteries:
“What is impossible is to keep [my Catholicism] out. The author cannot prevent the work being his or hers.” Gene Wolfe (1931-2019)
December 21, 2024
Science Fiction MYSTERY: I NEVER REALLY KNEW THERE WAS SUCH A THING, Until I Saw "I, Robot"...
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
December 18, 2024
IDEAS ON TUESDAY 655
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
Fantasy Trope: The Quest
Current Event: http://contemplativequest.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland
Světlana Angelika pursed her lips, looking out over the hectares of forest. In the MSP Vertical Village, it was mostly deciduous trees – oak, maple, patches of white-barked birch, poplar – with a sprinkling of pine trees. The concourse she and Uthman Aali were on was packed with people. Not a hundred thousand, for sure, but too many to think. “We need to go somewhere,” she said abruptly, speaking in the too loud manner of all the inhabitants of Vertical Villages everywhere.
Uthman gave her a look that said, “You’re crazy.”
She slugged him in the shoulder. It was a little kid move – but then, they’d been friends since they were three years old. “No, I’m serious. We need to go somewhere real.”
Without changing his stare, Uthman said, “We can go up to the six hundredth floor...”
“No! I don’t mean here. This is all so...boring. We need to go,” she pause, “through a looking glass.”
“A what?”
“A looking glass! Haven’t you ever read Alice in Wonderland?”
“I might have seen a threevee of it once. Wasn’t it a cartoon?”
“Yes – and no, you haven’t seen this. Lewis Carroll wrote a novel, it’s true. But he was a mathematician. His logic is all over the book. Math. Everything.”
Uthman snorted, “It sounds like science fiction.”
“It’s fantasy – she steps through a mirror.”
“If it’s math and logic, it’s science fiction.”
“There are talking rabbits,” said Světlana. “And a talking, disappearing cat. As well as a talking, smoking caterpillar, talking mice, and soldiers made of playing cards.”
“OK. You win. It’s a fantasy. But what does it have to do with us? What kind of mirror can we jump through? I’m sure there are some here – but...”
“The windows. We can jump through one of those.”
“A window?”
“Come on, let’s go to the outer walls. We’ll leap through one of those!” She turned and ran, Uthman running after her.
Names: ♀ Czech, Roman; ♂ Arabic, Hindu
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
December 14, 2024
Slice of PIE: I WISH I Could Be A Hopepunk Writer, but I Don’t Qualify…
This entry was inspired by a session I read about during the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019. The link is provided below where this appeared on page 25…
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE HAS POLITICAL AND DEEPER-THAN-USUAL CHRISTIAN OVERTONES. DON'T READ IT IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH.
Introduction to hopepunk: Alexandra Rowland coined the term ‘hopepunk’ in a Tumblr post in 2017, saying that: ‘…the opposite of Grimdark is Hopepunk’. Our panel will discuss what the term means and how hopepunk intersects with other speculative subgenres such as grimdark, noblebright, and solarpunk, as well as offering reading recommendations.
Sam Hawke: Lawyer, writer.
Jo Walton: Hugo and Nebula award winning novelist, blogger at Tor.com, poet.
Alexandra Rowland: Game monitor at an escape room company, seamstress, and writer.
Lettie Prell: Science fiction writer.
I had never heard of this, but it’s probably what I’d write if I could get it published.
Of course, it EMPHATICALLY does not include me: in the article resourced below: “Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.”
This definition seems to exclude Christianity as an ultimate hope because (it seems), God isn't a necessary component for goodness.
Rowland, the article points out, “…was responding to the idea of 'grimdark' — a literary descriptor for genre texts and media which evoke a pervasively gritty, bleak, pessimistic, or nihilistic view of the world…in which cruelty is a given and social systems are destined to betray or disappoint."
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE HAS POLITICAL AND DEEPER-THAN-USUAL CHRISTIAN OVERTONES. DON'T READ IT IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH.
Introduction to hopepunk: Alexandra Rowland coined the term ‘hopepunk’ in a Tumblr post in 2017, saying that: ‘…the opposite of Grimdark is Hopepunk’. Our panel will discuss what the term means and how hopepunk intersects with other speculative subgenres such as grimdark, noblebright, and solarpunk, as well as offering reading recommendations.
Sam Hawke: Lawyer, writer.
Jo Walton: Hugo and Nebula award winning novelist, blogger at Tor.com, poet.
Alexandra Rowland: Game monitor at an escape room company, seamstress, and writer.
Lettie Prell: Science fiction writer.
I had never heard of this, but it’s probably what I’d write if I could get it published.
Of course, it EMPHATICALLY does not include me: in the article resourced below: “Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.”
This definition seems to exclude Christianity as an ultimate hope because (it seems), God isn't a necessary component for goodness.
Rowland, the article points out, “…was responding to the idea of 'grimdark' — a literary descriptor for genre texts and media which evoke a pervasively gritty, bleak, pessimistic, or nihilistic view of the world…in which cruelty is a given and social systems are destined to betray or disappoint."
It’s also, apparently political as the article subtitle made clear, “In the era of Trump and apocalyptic change, Hopepunk is a storytelling template for #resistance — and hanging onto your humanity at all costs.” And of course, the prime advocate of this #resistance had no political connection or motivation and was merely a humble representative for a political party that had the good of all people everywhere in mind: Andrew Slack noted that JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien ‘readied us for a message of hope, change, and global citizenry [that was advocated by] Barack Obama,’ he wrote, noting that Obama’s presidency was also ‘met by a giant swell of popularity around fantasies that dwelled in the darkness: vampires, dystopias, and Heath Ledger’s nihilist Joker.’ In essence, grimdark.”
Of course, the movement apparently feels Jesus was “a good man” as Rowland was quoted in an article that followed up on her Twitter invention of the new literary category: “…she crucially offered examples of both mythical and real-world political figures: ‘Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon’ — heroes who chose to perform radical resistance in unjust political climates, and to imagine better worlds.” (She might want to read CS Lewis’ response to her inclusion on her list: https://caldronpool.com/c-s-lewis-destroys-unbelievers-who-think-jesus-was-a-good-man/)
Wow! Jesus (who was, apparently, mythical) resisted…Rome? The Jewish establishment? living in an “unjust political climate”, and accordingly, imagined a better world. Through sacrificing His life?
According to the author of this piece, hopepunk is “…a perfect aesthetic accompaniment to the…philosophy that aggressively choosing kindness, optimism, and softness over hardness, cynicism, and violence can be a powerful political choice….[it] says that ‘kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness,’ Rowland wrote in her expanded definition, ‘and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act,’ [combining] the aesthetics of choosing gentleness with the messy politics of revolution…”
The end of the article elucidates the books, stories, authors, and trumpets the advent of a spectacular new concept apparently invented by Millenials: “Rowland’s original hopepunk definition has now been widely shared and discussed throughout the sci-fi and fantasy community, in online forums and in panel discussions at a number of conventions, and writers have frequently started to describe their own works as hopepunk…panel[s] on hopepunk and optimistic sci-fi/fantasy…N.K. Jemisin, whose works carry themes of resistance in a time of apocalypse and bear sharp signifiers of hopepunk…As the first black woman to nab the top prize in 2016, and then the first writer to win it three years in a row thanks to her 2017 and 2018 repeat wins, Jemisin’s 2018 win became a moment of convergence in which literary hopepunk evolved into real-world activism — a show of defiance in an ongoing battle against radical right-wing extremism within the sci-fi/fantasy community. [Which, oddly, appears to have been unnoticed since the inception of SFWA in 1966.] In recognizing her work, with its themes of finding humanity and love amid apocalyptic change, Hugo voters sent a message that they would not allow blights like racism to undermine the sci-fi community’s humanism and idealism [which they HAD been for nearly a century...which see, one example: the identities of James Tiptree, Jr. and CJ Cherryh and the consistent snubbing of any number of women SF/F writers]…Ever since, Hopepunk has seemed to be suddenly everywhere, becoming a true force in the literary landscape in the last couple months of 2018: At IO9, Eleanor Tremeer argued that we need utopian fiction now more than ever; the piece didn’t explicitly identify hopepunk, but many of its readers did…The Verge announced its upcoming Better Worlds science fiction series, intended to promote sci-fi…Tor wrote about “high epic fantasy hopepunk…As the idea of hopepunk has caught on, many people have expressed gratefulness to Rowland for coining the term. When I first introduced and explained the term to Slack, for example, he wrote me an ebullient 15-paragraph email, exclaiming, “This is some seriously important and sacred [crap]!”…Part of the reason that hopepunk feels so important in the current moment is that two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s arguably difficult for many people to stay motivated and alert to the many political crises happening at once. Hopepunk, then, is a way of drawing energy and strength from fictional inspirations in order to keep fighting the good fight in the real world…This is not an easy task,” Slack wrote. “It shakes us to our core. But hopepunk reminds us to thank…goodness that we have such a beautiful core.” (Apparently hopepunk includes the vigorous use of vulgarity to emphasize how devoted you are to its ideals…)
This shining movement, a testament to all things Humanly Wonderful, has totally ignored at least one author who wrote peaceful, tranquil science fiction decades ago and whom few people read now because he DIDN’T write about empires, kingdoms, and Obama. He wrote hope in an era spanning the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, post-Vietnam, through the Iranian hostage crisis (overseen by then president and a proponent of not only hopepunk, but of old-fashioned HOPE, Jimmy Carter) and almost to the Fall of Communism:
Clifford D. Simak, I daresay, was one of the original hopepunk writers…oops…sorry, I guess he can’t be. He believed in God, which (while it isn't essential to being a hopepunk writer), might make it a bit easier to write a story that is inherently positive and hopeful.
Program Book: https://dublin2019.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ProgrammeScheduleWeb.pdf, https://dublin2019.com/whats-on/programming/programme-schedule/
Resource: https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18137571/what-is-hopepunk-noblebright-grimdark, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_D._SimakImage: https://fq8ku9wqwk7gai1z3frl16nd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/HOPEPUNK-100-996x515.jpg
Of course, the movement apparently feels Jesus was “a good man” as Rowland was quoted in an article that followed up on her Twitter invention of the new literary category: “…she crucially offered examples of both mythical and real-world political figures: ‘Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon’ — heroes who chose to perform radical resistance in unjust political climates, and to imagine better worlds.” (She might want to read CS Lewis’ response to her inclusion on her list: https://caldronpool.com/c-s-lewis-destroys-unbelievers-who-think-jesus-was-a-good-man/)
Wow! Jesus (who was, apparently, mythical) resisted…Rome? The Jewish establishment? living in an “unjust political climate”, and accordingly, imagined a better world. Through sacrificing His life?
According to the author of this piece, hopepunk is “…a perfect aesthetic accompaniment to the…philosophy that aggressively choosing kindness, optimism, and softness over hardness, cynicism, and violence can be a powerful political choice….[it] says that ‘kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness,’ Rowland wrote in her expanded definition, ‘and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act,’ [combining] the aesthetics of choosing gentleness with the messy politics of revolution…”
The end of the article elucidates the books, stories, authors, and trumpets the advent of a spectacular new concept apparently invented by Millenials: “Rowland’s original hopepunk definition has now been widely shared and discussed throughout the sci-fi and fantasy community, in online forums and in panel discussions at a number of conventions, and writers have frequently started to describe their own works as hopepunk…panel[s] on hopepunk and optimistic sci-fi/fantasy…N.K. Jemisin, whose works carry themes of resistance in a time of apocalypse and bear sharp signifiers of hopepunk…As the first black woman to nab the top prize in 2016, and then the first writer to win it three years in a row thanks to her 2017 and 2018 repeat wins, Jemisin’s 2018 win became a moment of convergence in which literary hopepunk evolved into real-world activism — a show of defiance in an ongoing battle against radical right-wing extremism within the sci-fi/fantasy community. [Which, oddly, appears to have been unnoticed since the inception of SFWA in 1966.] In recognizing her work, with its themes of finding humanity and love amid apocalyptic change, Hugo voters sent a message that they would not allow blights like racism to undermine the sci-fi community’s humanism and idealism [which they HAD been for nearly a century...which see, one example: the identities of James Tiptree, Jr. and CJ Cherryh and the consistent snubbing of any number of women SF/F writers]…Ever since, Hopepunk has seemed to be suddenly everywhere, becoming a true force in the literary landscape in the last couple months of 2018: At IO9, Eleanor Tremeer argued that we need utopian fiction now more than ever; the piece didn’t explicitly identify hopepunk, but many of its readers did…The Verge announced its upcoming Better Worlds science fiction series, intended to promote sci-fi…Tor wrote about “high epic fantasy hopepunk…As the idea of hopepunk has caught on, many people have expressed gratefulness to Rowland for coining the term. When I first introduced and explained the term to Slack, for example, he wrote me an ebullient 15-paragraph email, exclaiming, “This is some seriously important and sacred [crap]!”…Part of the reason that hopepunk feels so important in the current moment is that two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s arguably difficult for many people to stay motivated and alert to the many political crises happening at once. Hopepunk, then, is a way of drawing energy and strength from fictional inspirations in order to keep fighting the good fight in the real world…This is not an easy task,” Slack wrote. “It shakes us to our core. But hopepunk reminds us to thank…goodness that we have such a beautiful core.” (Apparently hopepunk includes the vigorous use of vulgarity to emphasize how devoted you are to its ideals…)
This shining movement, a testament to all things Humanly Wonderful, has totally ignored at least one author who wrote peaceful, tranquil science fiction decades ago and whom few people read now because he DIDN’T write about empires, kingdoms, and Obama. He wrote hope in an era spanning the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, post-Vietnam, through the Iranian hostage crisis (overseen by then president and a proponent of not only hopepunk, but of old-fashioned HOPE, Jimmy Carter) and almost to the Fall of Communism:
Clifford D. Simak, I daresay, was one of the original hopepunk writers…oops…sorry, I guess he can’t be. He believed in God, which (while it isn't essential to being a hopepunk writer), might make it a bit easier to write a story that is inherently positive and hopeful.
Program Book: https://dublin2019.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ProgrammeScheduleWeb.pdf, https://dublin2019.com/whats-on/programming/programme-schedule/
Resource: https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18137571/what-is-hopepunk-noblebright-grimdark, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_D._SimakImage: https://fq8ku9wqwk7gai1z3frl16nd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/HOPEPUNK-100-996x515.jpg
Labels:
A Slice of PIE -- Brief Essays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
December 11, 2024
IDEA ON TUESDAY 654
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”
SF Trope: Evil de-evolution
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution_(biology) (Fascinating article in which an evolutionists tap-dances around the idea that the dissemination of correct information is NOT the responsibility of scientists but of...um...Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, but ultimately Nobody and CERTAINLY not them…(http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/hlife.html))
Ugnė Mertens flipped her pigtail back again as she stared at the image on her laptop. Muttering, she stepped sideways to the microscope and moved the slide using the X-Y translational control knobs fine adjustment. The image of the chromosome she was studying moved fractionally.
Naranbaatar Todorov picked at his thin, first beard and said, “Staring at it isn’t going to make the genes magically appear, Ug.”
“That’s what you think,” she straightened up, she smiled and added, “Baaaaa,” drawing out the stereotypical sheep sound. “Watch.” She touched a pressure toggle on an odd, goose-necked device standing beside the microscope. The computer’s screen fuzzed suddenly, then the single chromosome lit up as if it was a candy cane.
Baa started, looked at the lamp and exclaimed, “What is that thing?
“Something I invented and you didn’t,” Ug said, sitting on the lab stool, leaning forward.
Baa swallowed hard, pursed his lips then said, “Listen, I know you don’t much like me...”
Ug reached out and typed an entry into the text box then said, “If I had a choice between dissecting three-day-old roadkill and having lunch with you...” she paused, made a face, then said, “I’m not sure which one I’d pick.”
Baa glanced at the clock on the wall. He still had four hours left of his shift. He couldn’t skip it or Dr. Harber would find out and dock him points. But he wasn’t sure he could keep his feet still and not kick Ugnė in the butt. He took a deep breath and said, “Must be an infrared to ultraviolet, rotating frequency projector.”
She shot him a look then went back to making notes on her computer. Occasionally she tapped her smartphone as well, which lay next to the laptop. “Lucky guess.”
“So that means, ‘yes’. Then you must have bathed the chromosomes in a solution that would...” Naranbaatar hooked another stool with his foot to drag it closer. Shrieking as it vibrated along the floor tiles, he winced and said, “Sorry.”
Ugnė sniffed but didn’t reply. Finally she said, “I used a mix that the older the gene, the less fluorescing compound it would pick up.
Baa frowned then asked, “What are the chromosomes from?”
“A narn.”
“You’re kidding!” he exclaimed. Reports had been circulating for years about animals whose genes had suddenly started evolving – a quantum evolution event – from static forms to much, much more intelligent forms.
“These are chromosomes from raccoons killed in southern Minnesota.”
“We have narns here?” Baa exclaimed, backing away from the microscope.
Ug turned to look at him. “The genes aren’t contagious, idiot! This isn’t a disease – it’s animal chromosomes. Dyed and fixed at that! What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. Nothing!” He spun around and took long strides out of the lab. He didn’t care if he lost hours – all he could see in his mind’s eye was the raccoon he’d nearly run over when he was biking on rural trails near his family’s home in an outer ring suburb of what was slowly becoming the three, four-kilometer-tall towers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Vertical Village.
He would never forget the look on its face as it held out a mangled aw to him and said, “Help...”
Names: ♀ Lithuanian, Belgian; ♂ Mongolian, Bulgarian
Sidebar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibriuM
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
SF Trope: Evil de-evolution
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution_(biology) (Fascinating article in which an evolutionists tap-dances around the idea that the dissemination of correct information is NOT the responsibility of scientists but of...um...Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, but ultimately Nobody and CERTAINLY not them…(http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/hlife.html))
Ugnė Mertens flipped her pigtail back again as she stared at the image on her laptop. Muttering, she stepped sideways to the microscope and moved the slide using the X-Y translational control knobs fine adjustment. The image of the chromosome she was studying moved fractionally.
Naranbaatar Todorov picked at his thin, first beard and said, “Staring at it isn’t going to make the genes magically appear, Ug.”
“That’s what you think,” she straightened up, she smiled and added, “Baaaaa,” drawing out the stereotypical sheep sound. “Watch.” She touched a pressure toggle on an odd, goose-necked device standing beside the microscope. The computer’s screen fuzzed suddenly, then the single chromosome lit up as if it was a candy cane.
Baa started, looked at the lamp and exclaimed, “What is that thing?
“Something I invented and you didn’t,” Ug said, sitting on the lab stool, leaning forward.
Baa swallowed hard, pursed his lips then said, “Listen, I know you don’t much like me...”
Ug reached out and typed an entry into the text box then said, “If I had a choice between dissecting three-day-old roadkill and having lunch with you...” she paused, made a face, then said, “I’m not sure which one I’d pick.”
Baa glanced at the clock on the wall. He still had four hours left of his shift. He couldn’t skip it or Dr. Harber would find out and dock him points. But he wasn’t sure he could keep his feet still and not kick Ugnė in the butt. He took a deep breath and said, “Must be an infrared to ultraviolet, rotating frequency projector.”
She shot him a look then went back to making notes on her computer. Occasionally she tapped her smartphone as well, which lay next to the laptop. “Lucky guess.”
“So that means, ‘yes’. Then you must have bathed the chromosomes in a solution that would...” Naranbaatar hooked another stool with his foot to drag it closer. Shrieking as it vibrated along the floor tiles, he winced and said, “Sorry.”
Ugnė sniffed but didn’t reply. Finally she said, “I used a mix that the older the gene, the less fluorescing compound it would pick up.
Baa frowned then asked, “What are the chromosomes from?”
“A narn.”
“You’re kidding!” he exclaimed. Reports had been circulating for years about animals whose genes had suddenly started evolving – a quantum evolution event – from static forms to much, much more intelligent forms.
“These are chromosomes from raccoons killed in southern Minnesota.”
“We have narns here?” Baa exclaimed, backing away from the microscope.
Ug turned to look at him. “The genes aren’t contagious, idiot! This isn’t a disease – it’s animal chromosomes. Dyed and fixed at that! What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. Nothing!” He spun around and took long strides out of the lab. He didn’t care if he lost hours – all he could see in his mind’s eye was the raccoon he’d nearly run over when he was biking on rural trails near his family’s home in an outer ring suburb of what was slowly becoming the three, four-kilometer-tall towers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Vertical Village.
He would never forget the look on its face as it held out a mangled aw to him and said, “Help...”
Names: ♀ Lithuanian, Belgian; ♂ Mongolian, Bulgarian
Sidebar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibriuM
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
December 7, 2024
WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #29 Adam-Troy Castro “& Me”
In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”
I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
Without further ado, short story observations by Adam-Troy Castro – with a few from myself…
I read my first story by Adam-Troy Castro in the June 2001 issue of ANALOG, a curious tale with the unlikely title of “Saturday Night Yams With Minnie and Earl”; most recently, I read “Minnie and Earl Get a Kitten” in the September/October 2024 issue of ANALOG. Castro’s science fiction short stories are really good at carrying me away and giving me something to think about, and so I thought I’d use a couple of interviews of him to shed light on WHY I might like his short science fiction, and HOW I could learn something of writing short SF from him.
“Usually I write between a thousand and two thousand words per day…It was autobiography with a science fictional twist, and it was therapy, and it came out in a kind of explosion. It needed to exist.”
The interviewer asked, “Do you have any advice for other writers?”
“Don’t be comfortable. If what you write strikes you as routine, it will feel routine. Dig deep.” LIGHTSPEED; August 2022
To tell you the truth, until recently, I haven’t had the time to write that much. By the same token, in the past twenty-eight years, I’ve managed to write (and often been paid for!) seventy-seven short stories, essays, and reviews; one book of children’s sermons (it’s actually been in print since 1998), and a YA/MG science fiction novel. So, writing to get published CAN be done while working a full-time job.
As for what’s been uncomfortable for me…I’ve only started to learn that recently, asking myself, “How do I know what I’m saying?” I also found out it’s possible for me to write stories I wasn’t sure what I was trying to “say” until I was done with it, had put it away, and took it out to read it again. (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/08/possibly-irritating-essay-how-do-i-know.html)
That has happened recently with a story I wrote in 2011 (on a REAL typewriter!). I wondered how (a quote from the movie “Apollo 13”) “I remember the NASA Public Relations guy [saying]: “All the networks dumped us. One said we make going to the moon look about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh.” This kind of attitude might have grown up again. While there’s lots of talk about spaceflight in some place, most real people don’t care. My story “High Carnival” looks at a way we might be able to turn that around…
Apex Magazine: What motivates writing a story like this? What sparked the initial concept?
Castro: You know, certain stories come with brilliant little back stories, fascinating little anecdotes, intense little explications of creation, to the point where the behind-the-scenes tale is as, or more interesting than the fiction…This is not one of those stories. I vaguely recall writing it, but can no longer summon the genesis, at all. Sorry.
My own stories? I can’t always remember the exact inspiration, either. Some, though? It’s clear. Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what my THEME is. It’s sort of vague, but I look at it as an exploration of what I want people to know; persuade them, for example, that education has changed as time has passed. For example, for years after I started teaching, it was nearly impossible to get a teacher to tutor a student when they were ill or had an injury they were recovering from. When I was a counselor, we had a young person who was undergoing treatment for a life-threatening disease. She was smart, got high grades, and was a wonderful kid…but we never found a teacher to tutor her.
If she had been diagnosed and confined TODAY, there would have been NO PROBLEM CONTINUING HER EDUCATION. We had to problem-solve during the COVID pandemic. Schools went 100% online AND…it was very, very messy. We made mistakes; made the pandemic WORSE for some families, and we lost a large number of students in the struggle to figure out what we were doing.
BUT…there were science fiction stories that talked about some precursor to distance education. We just didn’t figure it out completely; and how many teachers do YOU know who would have listened to some crackpot scifi writer telling us how to educate kids???
Anyway, Education is a focus of my stories; thriving with an alternative way of learning; my faith. All of those have found their way into my stories. All of them will CONTINUE to.
Apex: You write a variety of styles, characters, and perspectives. Is there any specific point-of-view that you find you most naturally lean toward in rough drafts, or does experimenting with POV drive how you approach the initial composition of a story?
Castro: Although the story dictates the voice, I sometimes find myself unduly steered toward first-person, present-tense, though that often goes away after I lie down for a while. As a reader, I like anything that emotionally affects me…As a writer: one reason I like mystery, if not as a genre, then as a format for science fiction stories, is that it gives the protagonists an excuse to walk around asking questions, and figuring out the world on their own, which is a very organic way of explaining it to the reader at the same time.
I was NOT a mystery reader as a kid, or even as a young adult. But as an adult, I’ve gradually fallen in love with certain CHARACTERS in mysteries. Me and my wife loved the TV show BONES…her because the mysteries were fascinating; me because I LOVED the science in the stories. Bones – Temperance Brennan – was forensic scientist, and it was the science that drove the stories. I’ve started to play around with mystery somewhat. As well, the mystery of location is what I fell for in the LONGMIRE series of books – NOT THE TV SHOW! I love the novels because they’re so much deeper than TV can ever get.
However, in learning to love the mystery, I’ve discovered that ALL fiction is mystery. Even romance is mystery – characters meet, and in every one, especially the romantic comedy/mystery, you know they’ll fall in love in the end. As they’re people, they’ll also have relationships.
That’s what’s started to creep into my own stories. NOT always romance; but sometimes reconciliation, another theme I discovered that’s meaningful to me. That was recent and I’ll be using that as a theme more in the future.
“Where’s there reconciliation in scifi????” you shout at me. You’ll find my discussion of the the subject here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/11/possibly-irritating-essays-time-travel.html and here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essays-spider-man.html
I’m working on it…now lastly:
Apex: What was the most important (to you) piece of writing advice you’ve encountered?
Castro: Worst piece of writing advice, ever: “You will never sell a word; Best: the well-known editors who took me to breakfast to say, “Adam, that first story you sold us? Were you a little unnerved that it was coming out of you? You were? Okay…have you felt more comfortable of late? You have? Well, that’s what you’re doing wrong.”
Castro: Despite international publications, award nominations, compliments from people I grew up reading, and so on, I still think of myself as an amateur who has yet to prove himself. With twenty-seven books published or contracted, I find the finish line is still moving, and that the worst possible thing for me, ever, will be catching up with it.”
And there you go. More with more authors and what I’m learning, in future posts!
References: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-adam-troy-castro-30/#:~:text=Don't%20be%20comfortable.,Dig%20deep.
Reference: https://apex-magazine.com/interviews-2/an-interview-with-adam-troy-castro/
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320
I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
Without further ado, short story observations by Adam-Troy Castro – with a few from myself…
I read my first story by Adam-Troy Castro in the June 2001 issue of ANALOG, a curious tale with the unlikely title of “Saturday Night Yams With Minnie and Earl”; most recently, I read “Minnie and Earl Get a Kitten” in the September/October 2024 issue of ANALOG. Castro’s science fiction short stories are really good at carrying me away and giving me something to think about, and so I thought I’d use a couple of interviews of him to shed light on WHY I might like his short science fiction, and HOW I could learn something of writing short SF from him.
“Usually I write between a thousand and two thousand words per day…It was autobiography with a science fictional twist, and it was therapy, and it came out in a kind of explosion. It needed to exist.”
The interviewer asked, “Do you have any advice for other writers?”
“Don’t be comfortable. If what you write strikes you as routine, it will feel routine. Dig deep.” LIGHTSPEED; August 2022
To tell you the truth, until recently, I haven’t had the time to write that much. By the same token, in the past twenty-eight years, I’ve managed to write (and often been paid for!) seventy-seven short stories, essays, and reviews; one book of children’s sermons (it’s actually been in print since 1998), and a YA/MG science fiction novel. So, writing to get published CAN be done while working a full-time job.
As for what’s been uncomfortable for me…I’ve only started to learn that recently, asking myself, “How do I know what I’m saying?” I also found out it’s possible for me to write stories I wasn’t sure what I was trying to “say” until I was done with it, had put it away, and took it out to read it again. (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/08/possibly-irritating-essay-how-do-i-know.html)
That has happened recently with a story I wrote in 2011 (on a REAL typewriter!). I wondered how (a quote from the movie “Apollo 13”) “I remember the NASA Public Relations guy [saying]: “All the networks dumped us. One said we make going to the moon look about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh.” This kind of attitude might have grown up again. While there’s lots of talk about spaceflight in some place, most real people don’t care. My story “High Carnival” looks at a way we might be able to turn that around…
Apex Magazine: What motivates writing a story like this? What sparked the initial concept?
Castro: You know, certain stories come with brilliant little back stories, fascinating little anecdotes, intense little explications of creation, to the point where the behind-the-scenes tale is as, or more interesting than the fiction…This is not one of those stories. I vaguely recall writing it, but can no longer summon the genesis, at all. Sorry.
My own stories? I can’t always remember the exact inspiration, either. Some, though? It’s clear. Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what my THEME is. It’s sort of vague, but I look at it as an exploration of what I want people to know; persuade them, for example, that education has changed as time has passed. For example, for years after I started teaching, it was nearly impossible to get a teacher to tutor a student when they were ill or had an injury they were recovering from. When I was a counselor, we had a young person who was undergoing treatment for a life-threatening disease. She was smart, got high grades, and was a wonderful kid…but we never found a teacher to tutor her.
If she had been diagnosed and confined TODAY, there would have been NO PROBLEM CONTINUING HER EDUCATION. We had to problem-solve during the COVID pandemic. Schools went 100% online AND…it was very, very messy. We made mistakes; made the pandemic WORSE for some families, and we lost a large number of students in the struggle to figure out what we were doing.
BUT…there were science fiction stories that talked about some precursor to distance education. We just didn’t figure it out completely; and how many teachers do YOU know who would have listened to some crackpot scifi writer telling us how to educate kids???
Anyway, Education is a focus of my stories; thriving with an alternative way of learning; my faith. All of those have found their way into my stories. All of them will CONTINUE to.
Apex: You write a variety of styles, characters, and perspectives. Is there any specific point-of-view that you find you most naturally lean toward in rough drafts, or does experimenting with POV drive how you approach the initial composition of a story?
Castro: Although the story dictates the voice, I sometimes find myself unduly steered toward first-person, present-tense, though that often goes away after I lie down for a while. As a reader, I like anything that emotionally affects me…As a writer: one reason I like mystery, if not as a genre, then as a format for science fiction stories, is that it gives the protagonists an excuse to walk around asking questions, and figuring out the world on their own, which is a very organic way of explaining it to the reader at the same time.
I was NOT a mystery reader as a kid, or even as a young adult. But as an adult, I’ve gradually fallen in love with certain CHARACTERS in mysteries. Me and my wife loved the TV show BONES…her because the mysteries were fascinating; me because I LOVED the science in the stories. Bones – Temperance Brennan – was forensic scientist, and it was the science that drove the stories. I’ve started to play around with mystery somewhat. As well, the mystery of location is what I fell for in the LONGMIRE series of books – NOT THE TV SHOW! I love the novels because they’re so much deeper than TV can ever get.
However, in learning to love the mystery, I’ve discovered that ALL fiction is mystery. Even romance is mystery – characters meet, and in every one, especially the romantic comedy/mystery, you know they’ll fall in love in the end. As they’re people, they’ll also have relationships.
That’s what’s started to creep into my own stories. NOT always romance; but sometimes reconciliation, another theme I discovered that’s meaningful to me. That was recent and I’ll be using that as a theme more in the future.
“Where’s there reconciliation in scifi????” you shout at me. You’ll find my discussion of the the subject here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/11/possibly-irritating-essays-time-travel.html and here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essays-spider-man.html
I’m working on it…now lastly:
Apex: What was the most important (to you) piece of writing advice you’ve encountered?
Castro: Worst piece of writing advice, ever: “You will never sell a word; Best: the well-known editors who took me to breakfast to say, “Adam, that first story you sold us? Were you a little unnerved that it was coming out of you? You were? Okay…have you felt more comfortable of late? You have? Well, that’s what you’re doing wrong.”
Castro: Despite international publications, award nominations, compliments from people I grew up reading, and so on, I still think of myself as an amateur who has yet to prove himself. With twenty-seven books published or contracted, I find the finish line is still moving, and that the worst possible thing for me, ever, will be catching up with it.”
And there you go. More with more authors and what I’m learning, in future posts!
References: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-adam-troy-castro-30/#:~:text=Don't%20be%20comfortable.,Dig%20deep.
Reference: https://apex-magazine.com/interviews-2/an-interview-with-adam-troy-castro/
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320
Labels:
Writing Advice: Short Stories
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
December 3, 2024
IDEA ON TUESDAY 653
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)
H Trope: The dead coming back to life...
Current Event: Any “miraculous” “resurrection” of someone who was “dead”…
Ephraim Mendoza shook his head and said, “That can’t be.”
Mercedes Chokkoon pursed her lips, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. When she opened her eyes, she said, “She’s dead. I was with her when she died.”
Frowning, Ephraim looked at her, eyes wide and said, “You said she’d be fine.”
Mercedes shrugged. She couldn’t take any more of this. “She was my sister. She was just your girlfriend. You think this is easy for me?”
He stared at her for a long time before he said, “No. That’s why I don’t understand how cold you’re acting. You sister is dead. The love of my...” his voice caught and he looked away. Not before she saw the tears slid down his face.
Mercedes glare at him, willing herself to blame him. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“Blame you.”
“What do you mean ‘blame you’? How could I have had anything to do with...”
Mercedes shook her head hard, “Nothing you did. Nothing you didn’t do. She wanted to live for you.”
“So? She wanted to live for you, too!”
“Not enough.”
“You’re blaming her for dying?” he said, incredulous. “She didn’t do anything to deserve this! She had no control...”
Mercedes slapped him. Then found her hands clenched in fists. One moment she was trembling, the next she was hitting him. She hit his face. Hit his nose. His eyes. Then she kneed him in the groin. He shoved her away, slamming her into the wall. She bounced off, spun, and fell face-first into the meal tray, screaming obscenities at him. He was down on the floor with her, hands around her throat, pressing; pressing; pressing the life out of her...
On the bed beside them, Chante sat up and said, “Stop it. Now.” There was no emotion in her voice. There wasn’t even a breath. The sound came without her moving her lips.
Mercedes scrambled back, free suddenly from Ephraim’s hands. He tried to stand as well, but tumbled over her. They found themselves with their backs against the hospital room door, side-by-side, clasping hands.
The heart monitor, still connected to her, was silent. The respirator, still taped to her jaw, was silent. The EEG waves turned the screen green with wild activity as she spoke, “Stop it. I love you both and if you don’t stop fighting…”
Names: ♀ French, Thai; ♂ Israeli, Mexican; ♀ French Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg
H Trope: The dead coming back to life...
Current Event: Any “miraculous” “resurrection” of someone who was “dead”…
Ephraim Mendoza shook his head and said, “That can’t be.”
Mercedes Chokkoon pursed her lips, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. When she opened her eyes, she said, “She’s dead. I was with her when she died.”
Frowning, Ephraim looked at her, eyes wide and said, “You said she’d be fine.”
Mercedes shrugged. She couldn’t take any more of this. “She was my sister. She was just your girlfriend. You think this is easy for me?”
He stared at her for a long time before he said, “No. That’s why I don’t understand how cold you’re acting. You sister is dead. The love of my...” his voice caught and he looked away. Not before she saw the tears slid down his face.
Mercedes glare at him, willing herself to blame him. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“Blame you.”
“What do you mean ‘blame you’? How could I have had anything to do with...”
Mercedes shook her head hard, “Nothing you did. Nothing you didn’t do. She wanted to live for you.”
“So? She wanted to live for you, too!”
“Not enough.”
“You’re blaming her for dying?” he said, incredulous. “She didn’t do anything to deserve this! She had no control...”
Mercedes slapped him. Then found her hands clenched in fists. One moment she was trembling, the next she was hitting him. She hit his face. Hit his nose. His eyes. Then she kneed him in the groin. He shoved her away, slamming her into the wall. She bounced off, spun, and fell face-first into the meal tray, screaming obscenities at him. He was down on the floor with her, hands around her throat, pressing; pressing; pressing the life out of her...
On the bed beside them, Chante sat up and said, “Stop it. Now.” There was no emotion in her voice. There wasn’t even a breath. The sound came without her moving her lips.
Mercedes scrambled back, free suddenly from Ephraim’s hands. He tried to stand as well, but tumbled over her. They found themselves with their backs against the hospital room door, side-by-side, clasping hands.
The heart monitor, still connected to her, was silent. The respirator, still taped to her jaw, was silent. The EEG waves turned the screen green with wild activity as she spoke, “Stop it. I love you both and if you don’t stop fighting…”
Names: ♀ French, Thai; ♂ Israeli, Mexican; ♀ French Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 30, 2024
POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Will Aliens Have A Sense of Humor We Can Understand?
On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Seventeen years later, I am revising and doing some different things with my blog. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, the oldest of which just became a teenager. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.
These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.
I think our sense of humor makes us Human…and that ALL OF US play with language in order to make ourselves laugh. Take for example the silly words we create.
HOBBIT: The vast majority of those of you reading this know that this word is a pronoun denoting a very specific imaginary being as depicted in JRR Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS novels. He invented the word.
NARNIA: A large number of you know that this is a proper noun attached to an imaginary land found in the works of English author, C. S. Lewis. He invented the word.
PERN: Many of you know that this is an acronym from an interplanetary survey done by a future Humanity imagined by Anne McCaffrey. It stands for Parallel Earth Resources Negligible. For some of us, that abbreviation explodes into memories of a world colonized by Humans seeking a simpler, agrarian existence on an alien world inhabited by nothing that seemed capable of harming us. Fate of course constantly surprises – and Pern was a cyclical victim of an alien plague that jumped from an eccentrically orbiting moon. Humans had to bioengineer a creature to combat these “threads”. From tiny, harmless flying lizards who could also teleport themselves when face with grave danger; Humans gengineered telepathic dragons…
FOIPIARGNAAADI: None of you will recognize this as a word meaning something like “the humorous power of made up words”. That’s because some years ago, myself, my wife and four young adults (two of them related to us, two of them not) invented it one night playing an impromptu game of SCRABBLE®. We even invented a grammar: the triple “a” pluralizes the word and the suffix “di” feminizes the noun. Why did we do this then conclude the game with gales of laughter?
I think it’s because on Earth, language (and the humor it creates) is innate and perhaps even unique to Humans. Don’t get me wrong. Every living thing communicates. There are levels of communication as well. Few people would question that flax plants and flatworms communicate differently than orcas and octopi.
There is good evidence that certain animals have a sense of humor: Dogs, meerkats and rats laugh…chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans do, too. Chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives, have the most human-like laughter. The Dogs of Spokane laugh, as do ravens and dolphins – at least provisionally. However, I think I’m safe in saying that two adult chimpanzees with four young adult chimpanzees in a safe environment at a Primate Research Center somewhere; would be unlikely to make up a word, create a simple grammar then find the whole thing amusing.
I contend that it is the “spark of the divine” in us that gives Humans the ability to use language of extreme complexity. In the Bible, Numbers 22 tells the tale of a man who was beating his donkey who had refused to walk past an angel because it recognized that the angel was about to kill the man. The man’s name was Balaam. In the end, the angel granted the donkey the ability to speak to the man. Even the rankest “animals-are-the-same-as-humans” activist and those who believe that animals deserve all the protection granted humans under law, would find it hard to credit this story as fact. At best, I could muster up enough BELIEF to grant that it might be possible. Even so, when talking about having a sense of humor, there are more complex ways to communicate and simpler ways to communicate.
Humor is communication at its most complex and least understood. “What makes us special is the range and amount of laughter we seek and produce, which in large part stems from our unique evolution, as well as our culture. Indeed, as Martin writes: ‘…being able to enjoy humor and express it through laughter seems to be an essential part of what it means to be human.’” (SURVIVAL OF THE FUNNIEST)
It is the complexity of humor that separates us from the animals. While it’s been said that “a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.” (The Infinite Monkey Theorem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem ), the same article goes on to explain that the obvious meaning isn’t the significant meaning of this statement. Monkeys aren’t going to write “Much Ado About Nothing” because monkeys aren’t Human. I suppose, though that it might be that monkeys would write a MONKEY equivalent of “Much Ado About Nothing” – but would a Human find it funny?
If or when we meet sapient aliens, will we be able to share a sense of Humor? I suppose that the family of STAR TREK aliens might be able to. Supposedly Humans, Cardassians, and Klingons – and at the end of the episode, Romulans, implying that Vulcans, Ferengi, Bajorans, Tellarites, Andorians, and all other Humanoids in and near the Federation are descended from a single race of sapient aliens who “seeded our” part of the galaxy with their DNA. [“…the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets.”]
It makes sense that Klingons and Humans can laugh together; certainly that Cardassians and Humans can forge relationships based on humor, and while Vulcans and Humans don’t “laugh together” per se, they can certainly share a sense of humor.
All this to say that we play with language in order to make ourselves laugh. It MAY be possible, but unlikely that Humans and aliens can EVER share a laugh, though I suppose they MAY share some sort of alcoholic (or its metabolic equivalent) beverage that would ease relationship tensions.
I am working at being able to WRITE funny for my fellow Humans – whose to say that an alien wouldn’t find my writing funny?
Sources: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-07-29/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor-this-scientist-has-been-tickling-rats-for-years-to-prove-it.html, https://exploringyourmind.com/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor-science-says-yes/, https://www.smallanimalplanet.com/the-science-behind-animal-laughter-do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/, Survival of the Funniest: A review of Rod Martin, Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470490800600111
Image: https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resident-alien-harry-and-joseph-laughing.jpg
These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.
I think our sense of humor makes us Human…and that ALL OF US play with language in order to make ourselves laugh. Take for example the silly words we create.
HOBBIT: The vast majority of those of you reading this know that this word is a pronoun denoting a very specific imaginary being as depicted in JRR Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS novels. He invented the word.
NARNIA: A large number of you know that this is a proper noun attached to an imaginary land found in the works of English author, C. S. Lewis. He invented the word.
PERN: Many of you know that this is an acronym from an interplanetary survey done by a future Humanity imagined by Anne McCaffrey. It stands for Parallel Earth Resources Negligible. For some of us, that abbreviation explodes into memories of a world colonized by Humans seeking a simpler, agrarian existence on an alien world inhabited by nothing that seemed capable of harming us. Fate of course constantly surprises – and Pern was a cyclical victim of an alien plague that jumped from an eccentrically orbiting moon. Humans had to bioengineer a creature to combat these “threads”. From tiny, harmless flying lizards who could also teleport themselves when face with grave danger; Humans gengineered telepathic dragons…
FOIPIARGNAAADI: None of you will recognize this as a word meaning something like “the humorous power of made up words”. That’s because some years ago, myself, my wife and four young adults (two of them related to us, two of them not) invented it one night playing an impromptu game of SCRABBLE®. We even invented a grammar: the triple “a” pluralizes the word and the suffix “di” feminizes the noun. Why did we do this then conclude the game with gales of laughter?
I think it’s because on Earth, language (and the humor it creates) is innate and perhaps even unique to Humans. Don’t get me wrong. Every living thing communicates. There are levels of communication as well. Few people would question that flax plants and flatworms communicate differently than orcas and octopi.
There is good evidence that certain animals have a sense of humor: Dogs, meerkats and rats laugh…chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans do, too. Chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives, have the most human-like laughter. The Dogs of Spokane laugh, as do ravens and dolphins – at least provisionally. However, I think I’m safe in saying that two adult chimpanzees with four young adult chimpanzees in a safe environment at a Primate Research Center somewhere; would be unlikely to make up a word, create a simple grammar then find the whole thing amusing.
I contend that it is the “spark of the divine” in us that gives Humans the ability to use language of extreme complexity. In the Bible, Numbers 22 tells the tale of a man who was beating his donkey who had refused to walk past an angel because it recognized that the angel was about to kill the man. The man’s name was Balaam. In the end, the angel granted the donkey the ability to speak to the man. Even the rankest “animals-are-the-same-as-humans” activist and those who believe that animals deserve all the protection granted humans under law, would find it hard to credit this story as fact. At best, I could muster up enough BELIEF to grant that it might be possible. Even so, when talking about having a sense of humor, there are more complex ways to communicate and simpler ways to communicate.
Humor is communication at its most complex and least understood. “What makes us special is the range and amount of laughter we seek and produce, which in large part stems from our unique evolution, as well as our culture. Indeed, as Martin writes: ‘…being able to enjoy humor and express it through laughter seems to be an essential part of what it means to be human.’” (SURVIVAL OF THE FUNNIEST)
It is the complexity of humor that separates us from the animals. While it’s been said that “a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.” (The Infinite Monkey Theorem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem ), the same article goes on to explain that the obvious meaning isn’t the significant meaning of this statement. Monkeys aren’t going to write “Much Ado About Nothing” because monkeys aren’t Human. I suppose, though that it might be that monkeys would write a MONKEY equivalent of “Much Ado About Nothing” – but would a Human find it funny?
If or when we meet sapient aliens, will we be able to share a sense of Humor? I suppose that the family of STAR TREK aliens might be able to. Supposedly Humans, Cardassians, and Klingons – and at the end of the episode, Romulans, implying that Vulcans, Ferengi, Bajorans, Tellarites, Andorians, and all other Humanoids in and near the Federation are descended from a single race of sapient aliens who “seeded our” part of the galaxy with their DNA. [“…the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets.”]
It makes sense that Klingons and Humans can laugh together; certainly that Cardassians and Humans can forge relationships based on humor, and while Vulcans and Humans don’t “laugh together” per se, they can certainly share a sense of humor.
All this to say that we play with language in order to make ourselves laugh. It MAY be possible, but unlikely that Humans and aliens can EVER share a laugh, though I suppose they MAY share some sort of alcoholic (or its metabolic equivalent) beverage that would ease relationship tensions.
I am working at being able to WRITE funny for my fellow Humans – whose to say that an alien wouldn’t find my writing funny?
Sources: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-07-29/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor-this-scientist-has-been-tickling-rats-for-years-to-prove-it.html, https://exploringyourmind.com/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor-science-says-yes/, https://www.smallanimalplanet.com/the-science-behind-animal-laughter-do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/, Survival of the Funniest: A review of Rod Martin, Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470490800600111
Image: https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/resident-alien-harry-and-joseph-laughing.jpg
Labels:
Alien Aliens,
POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 26, 2024
IDEAS ON TUESDAY 652
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
Fantasy Trope: Magical Realism (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicRealism?from=Main.MagicalRealism)
Current Event: http://www.shockmansion.com/2014/11/19/video-real-life-magic-carpet-ride-canopy-flyer-surfs-on-the-back-of-a-wingsuit-flyer-in-norway/
Filip Møller took a deep breath and held out his arms to catch the wind roaring up the jutting spike of stone called Trolltunga as it jutted over a branch of Hardangerfjord in western Norway. It would the jump of his life and make him the youngest boy to do it. His guardian had signed off, the law had been called, and on his thirteenth birthday, Filip would do what he’d dreamed of doing.
Jakob Sjöman was Filip’s best friend and figured it would have been better for him to wear a diaper than have skipped eating for the past week. At least he wouldn’t be trying to crap his pants with nothing in his stomach. Instead, the cramps wouldn’t leave him alone. He KNEW Filip wasn’t trying to kill him. He KNEW he was eighteen and legally capable of signing his life away as Filip’s guardian, but this was crazy! There had to be an easier way to let someone know...
Filip shouted, “This is it! Let’s go!” He ran and leaped from Trolltunga jutting out into nothingness.
Jakob closed his eyes, took a breath, nearly puked his empty stomach out and ended up only gagging, then ran at the cliff edge. He closed his eyes when he reached the point where his father shouted, “Jump!” He did and fell into nothingness.
He might have passed out if he didn’t hear Filip scream just then. Jakob’s eyes flew open behind the goggles in time to see his “little brother” disappear into a roiling gray cloud. “What’s wrong?” he asked the wind roaring past his face at a hundred and sixty km/hour. “Slapping my face, more like,” he said, tipping the wingsuit a fraction to follow Filip. The cloud was wet, exactly like fog. “If fog moved instead of just sitting there.” He shot free of the cloud and started. There was no water beneath them. Instead, pine trees marched endlessly to all the horizons. What was going on?
Filip slowed until they were flying side-by-side. “Where are we?” he shouted.
At least that’s what Jakob thought he shouted. He pointed down with his chin. No point talking up here. Landing was the only way they could do anything. Still horrified by the whole thing, he also didn’t want to die doing this. He’d worked harder at the training that Filip had – the kid was crazy when it came to jumping, but he had a pretty normal thirteen-year-old’s sense of reality. He figured he could do anything. After the car crash that killed his mom, Jakob was absolutely certain there was nothing HE could do about anything except push it all back and figure whatever happened, happened.
The ground was rushing toward them. It was close to the time to deploy the chute. That was when he saw the airfield. Beside it were open fields, just starting to turn gold at this time of year. He jerked his chin toward them and Filip tweaked his flight so that he was alongside but a ways away. Jakob frowned. Were those bleachers alongside the fields? As they swooped lower and lower, they roared over a small town as they yanked the ripcords of the parachutes in unison. They billowed out overhead and before they knew it, they were running as they glided into a landing.
Of course, Filip landed without a hitch. Jakob tripped over his feet and fell, rolling as a gust of wind ballooned the parachute and dragged him along for several moment until he was hopelessly tangled. By the time the laughing Filip had released him a crowd of people stood around them.
Jakob, trying to regain some sense of dignity, stepped up to the person closest to him and said, “Where are we?”
The older woman said, “Jeg snakker ikke norsk.”
He switched to English, which he could speak, though badly, “You speak that...”
She laughed and said, “Min norsk er veldig rusten.”
“What?”
Filip elbowed him and said in Norwegian, “It’s an American idiom.” Then he turned to the woman and said in English, “My friend doesn’t speak English very well, either. Forgive him. My name is Filip...um...” his self-assurance suddenly deflated as he said, “Where are we?”
Names: ♂ Norway, Denmark ; ♂ Norway, Sweden
Fantasy Trope: Magical Realism (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicRealism?from=Main.MagicalRealism)
Current Event: http://www.shockmansion.com/2014/11/19/video-real-life-magic-carpet-ride-canopy-flyer-surfs-on-the-back-of-a-wingsuit-flyer-in-norway/
Filip Møller took a deep breath and held out his arms to catch the wind roaring up the jutting spike of stone called Trolltunga as it jutted over a branch of Hardangerfjord in western Norway. It would the jump of his life and make him the youngest boy to do it. His guardian had signed off, the law had been called, and on his thirteenth birthday, Filip would do what he’d dreamed of doing.
Jakob Sjöman was Filip’s best friend and figured it would have been better for him to wear a diaper than have skipped eating for the past week. At least he wouldn’t be trying to crap his pants with nothing in his stomach. Instead, the cramps wouldn’t leave him alone. He KNEW Filip wasn’t trying to kill him. He KNEW he was eighteen and legally capable of signing his life away as Filip’s guardian, but this was crazy! There had to be an easier way to let someone know...
Filip shouted, “This is it! Let’s go!” He ran and leaped from Trolltunga jutting out into nothingness.
Jakob closed his eyes, took a breath, nearly puked his empty stomach out and ended up only gagging, then ran at the cliff edge. He closed his eyes when he reached the point where his father shouted, “Jump!” He did and fell into nothingness.
He might have passed out if he didn’t hear Filip scream just then. Jakob’s eyes flew open behind the goggles in time to see his “little brother” disappear into a roiling gray cloud. “What’s wrong?” he asked the wind roaring past his face at a hundred and sixty km/hour. “Slapping my face, more like,” he said, tipping the wingsuit a fraction to follow Filip. The cloud was wet, exactly like fog. “If fog moved instead of just sitting there.” He shot free of the cloud and started. There was no water beneath them. Instead, pine trees marched endlessly to all the horizons. What was going on?
Filip slowed until they were flying side-by-side. “Where are we?” he shouted.
At least that’s what Jakob thought he shouted. He pointed down with his chin. No point talking up here. Landing was the only way they could do anything. Still horrified by the whole thing, he also didn’t want to die doing this. He’d worked harder at the training that Filip had – the kid was crazy when it came to jumping, but he had a pretty normal thirteen-year-old’s sense of reality. He figured he could do anything. After the car crash that killed his mom, Jakob was absolutely certain there was nothing HE could do about anything except push it all back and figure whatever happened, happened.
The ground was rushing toward them. It was close to the time to deploy the chute. That was when he saw the airfield. Beside it were open fields, just starting to turn gold at this time of year. He jerked his chin toward them and Filip tweaked his flight so that he was alongside but a ways away. Jakob frowned. Were those bleachers alongside the fields? As they swooped lower and lower, they roared over a small town as they yanked the ripcords of the parachutes in unison. They billowed out overhead and before they knew it, they were running as they glided into a landing.
Of course, Filip landed without a hitch. Jakob tripped over his feet and fell, rolling as a gust of wind ballooned the parachute and dragged him along for several moment until he was hopelessly tangled. By the time the laughing Filip had released him a crowd of people stood around them.
Jakob, trying to regain some sense of dignity, stepped up to the person closest to him and said, “Where are we?”
The older woman said, “Jeg snakker ikke norsk.”
He switched to English, which he could speak, though badly, “You speak that...”
She laughed and said, “Min norsk er veldig rusten.”
“What?”
Filip elbowed him and said in Norwegian, “It’s an American idiom.” Then he turned to the woman and said in English, “My friend doesn’t speak English very well, either. Forgive him. My name is Filip...um...” his self-assurance suddenly deflated as he said, “Where are we?”
Names: ♂ Norway, Denmark ; ♂ Norway, Sweden
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 23, 2024
POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Time Travel and Reconciliation With Dad...
NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland, I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
I’m a sucker for a movie or book that’s all about reconciliation – The Jane Austen movies are about reconciliation of broken relationships (They’re romances, too, but that’s beside the point). STAR TREK: Wrath of Khan is about reconciliation between Kirk and his son David. Dad introduced me to STAR TREK in the late 60s, and watching the shows with him, and eventually my wife and kids, was a foundational event that led me to me pursuing my writing.
Even the goofy Lego Movie has a father-son reconciliation at the end (Oddly, there are NO images of them hugging at the end...sad, that.)
The first movie mom and dad brought us to see was the original MARY POPPINS. We saw it at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale, the city Mom grew up in. At the very end, Mr. Banks reconciles with his kids, dumping the “bank life” for flying a kite with Jane and Michael. The author of the Mary Poppins books, PL Travers, in the movie, SAVING MR. BANKS, argues that her book was NOT about Mary Poppins or the children -- but saving Mr. Banks, who was based on her own FATHER.
I’ve been reflecting lately about WHY reconciliation movies and books are so important to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sort of odd duck in the family. Dad played football and basketball (in the day when players who were 6’1” were tall, he was STILL short!). My brothers and sister played sports all through high school and beyond. Even mom was a member of the Robbinsdale Girl’s Athletic Club – tennis, badminton, and even fencing.
I didn’t do sports. I read. I wrote. I played guitar. I went to a very religious college and then went touring in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and eventually West Africa with two different church bands. I went to Moorhead State University and worked most of my summers at Bible camps.
I wasn’t home a lot because, frankly, I didn’t feel like I belonged.
Then I got older and wiser, got married, then Josh and Mary were born, and then Alzheimer’s touched our lives. After Mom passed, it just seemed to get worse, but I started to spend more time with Dad. Oddly, I started to feel closer to him as we did more and more things together – like watching NASCAR racing, going to restaurants after doctor or dentist visits, or going to The Lookout just because. Our lives began to twine together like they never had when I was younger. We would talk, sometimes just sit together, or go to an event at SilverCreek and enjoy ourselves. In the end, I felt reconciled – I felt like Dad was part of my life again and that I was part of his. Maybe that’s why the movies like Sing, Back To The Future, FINDING NEMO, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Part 2); MEN IN BLACK 4; and yesterday, THE ADAM PROJECT -- all mean so much to me. All of them are about reconciliation; about joining BACK together after a time of separation.
I’m a sucker for a movie or book that’s all about reconciliation – The Jane Austen movies are about reconciliation of broken relationships (They’re romances, too, but that’s beside the point). STAR TREK: Wrath of Khan is about reconciliation between Kirk and his son David. Dad introduced me to STAR TREK in the late 60s, and watching the shows with him, and eventually my wife and kids, was a foundational event that led me to me pursuing my writing.
Even the goofy Lego Movie has a father-son reconciliation at the end (Oddly, there are NO images of them hugging at the end...sad, that.)
The first movie mom and dad brought us to see was the original MARY POPPINS. We saw it at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale, the city Mom grew up in. At the very end, Mr. Banks reconciles with his kids, dumping the “bank life” for flying a kite with Jane and Michael. The author of the Mary Poppins books, PL Travers, in the movie, SAVING MR. BANKS, argues that her book was NOT about Mary Poppins or the children -- but saving Mr. Banks, who was based on her own FATHER.
I’ve been reflecting lately about WHY reconciliation movies and books are so important to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sort of odd duck in the family. Dad played football and basketball (in the day when players who were 6’1” were tall, he was STILL short!). My brothers and sister played sports all through high school and beyond. Even mom was a member of the Robbinsdale Girl’s Athletic Club – tennis, badminton, and even fencing.
I didn’t do sports. I read. I wrote. I played guitar. I went to a very religious college and then went touring in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and eventually West Africa with two different church bands. I went to Moorhead State University and worked most of my summers at Bible camps.
I wasn’t home a lot because, frankly, I didn’t feel like I belonged.
Then I got older and wiser, got married, then Josh and Mary were born, and then Alzheimer’s touched our lives. After Mom passed, it just seemed to get worse, but I started to spend more time with Dad. Oddly, I started to feel closer to him as we did more and more things together – like watching NASCAR racing, going to restaurants after doctor or dentist visits, or going to The Lookout just because. Our lives began to twine together like they never had when I was younger. We would talk, sometimes just sit together, or go to an event at SilverCreek and enjoy ourselves. In the end, I felt reconciled – I felt like Dad was part of my life again and that I was part of his. Maybe that’s why the movies like Sing, Back To The Future, FINDING NEMO, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Part 2); MEN IN BLACK 4; and yesterday, THE ADAM PROJECT -- all mean so much to me. All of them are about reconciliation; about joining BACK together after a time of separation.
I cried at those movies when I first saw them. In fact, if it's been a while, they STILL make me weep...
A few days ago, me and my wife were rewatching THE ADAM PROJECT for the hundredth time. Basic idea was Dad (Mark Ruffalo) wrote an algorithm for controlled time travel -- alienating his 12-year-old son, Adam. He's angry at losing him BEFORE he died, and grows up into an angry, reckless adult who IS capable of loving a woman. In the end, both "boys" reconcile with their father, playing catch in their back yard as they all return to their anchor present...the young Adam makes changes that change his older self. I suppose it's a sort of "substitutionary" healing. The thing is that, as I've continued to be touched by these movies, I've never tried to write a story like them about ME. What am I afraid of -- releasing my anger? Am I holding on to my pain. Maybe it's finally time to release my pain; maybe start to heal my own heart...
Now all that's left is for me to create a character who mirrors my OWN life and write his story...
Image: https://66.media.tumblr.com/978ec6405dc64d4a8ec98381fadfbb7b/tumblr_naz7eoI5n71tch951o8_400.jpg, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/6a/36/5f6a36cd34703eb8bf0d1e4d59660965.jpg, http://cinemagogue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1393260444000-Ferrell-lego-3.jpg
Image: https://66.media.tumblr.com/978ec6405dc64d4a8ec98381fadfbb7b/tumblr_naz7eoI5n71tch951o8_400.jpg, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/6a/36/5f6a36cd34703eb8bf0d1e4d59660965.jpg, http://cinemagogue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1393260444000-Ferrell-lego-3.jpg
Labels:
POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 20, 2024
IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 651
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”
SF Trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForWantOfANail
Sparking Event: http://www.breitbart.com/video/2014/11/15/maher-if-obama-had-lost-us-wouldnt-have-fruit-or-jobs/
And A Prompt From My Niece-In-Law: wool, celery, parallel universe, dynamite, fireman’s ball, fishing tackle.
Jose Taylor-Perez shrugged his shoulders, settling his wool sweater more comfortably. “You eat that and it’ll be like someone lit a stick a dynamite and shoved it up your…”
Emily Patel-Kelly tossed the celery stick at him then punched Jose in the shoulder, “If you weren’t my best friend, that would have been hard enough to knock the humerus out of the ball park.” She snickered, “Not that anything short of a wrecking ball would be able to knock any of your face bones free of that fishing tackle in your mouth.”
“Hey! No fair! I can’t do anything about braces!” he said, shaking his head, “Besides, your premed jokes are only funny to you…added to that, you won’t even be able to BE premed until at the earliest your junior year.”
Ignoring the frustrating fact that she couldn’t start college until she could do College In The Schools, she said, “Like I can do anything about a celery allergy?” She lifted her chin, “Besides, I don’t exactly have a standard reaction to it.”
“You can say that again,” he said as he fiddled with his transparent computer tablet where it hovered over his lap. “You’re the only person I know that can use a V8 Harvest and Strawberry Smoothie as a gateway to a parallel universe.”
She shook her head, “I wish I could see into the universe where I passed this history final with flying colors.”
“That’s for sure,” said Jose. “I’ll never remember who came after President McCain.”
“Don’t be such a sexist – President Palin took over after McCain had his coronary two years after he got elected.”
“Right, the first lady...”
“No, it was the First Husband Todd…” she said, adding a smirk.
“I was gonna say, ‘President’.”
Shaking her head, Emily hunched over her own transparent tablet, setting it to project a holographic screen in front of her. Walking her fingers through a manipulation panel, she absentmindedly picked up a celery stick and shoved it into her mouth. After her eyes grew wide, she muttered, “Oh, crap...”
“What’s wrong?” Jose asked. Her tablet began to glow then flames flickered around the edges as she tried to shove the instrument away from her. “You ate the celery!” He exclaimed. “Why did you do that?”
“I wasn’t thinking! I was playing around with tensor calculus…”
“And you opened a door into a parallel universe!” Jose shouted as the fire alarms went off and a robot fireman’s ball floated out from its nook and began to sprout nozzles. “Now we’re gonna…”
An explosion cut him off…
Names: ♀US(California); ♂ US(New York)
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
SF Trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForWantOfANail
Sparking Event: http://www.breitbart.com/video/2014/11/15/maher-if-obama-had-lost-us-wouldnt-have-fruit-or-jobs/
And A Prompt From My Niece-In-Law: wool, celery, parallel universe, dynamite, fireman’s ball, fishing tackle.
Jose Taylor-Perez shrugged his shoulders, settling his wool sweater more comfortably. “You eat that and it’ll be like someone lit a stick a dynamite and shoved it up your…”
Emily Patel-Kelly tossed the celery stick at him then punched Jose in the shoulder, “If you weren’t my best friend, that would have been hard enough to knock the humerus out of the ball park.” She snickered, “Not that anything short of a wrecking ball would be able to knock any of your face bones free of that fishing tackle in your mouth.”
“Hey! No fair! I can’t do anything about braces!” he said, shaking his head, “Besides, your premed jokes are only funny to you…added to that, you won’t even be able to BE premed until at the earliest your junior year.”
Ignoring the frustrating fact that she couldn’t start college until she could do College In The Schools, she said, “Like I can do anything about a celery allergy?” She lifted her chin, “Besides, I don’t exactly have a standard reaction to it.”
“You can say that again,” he said as he fiddled with his transparent computer tablet where it hovered over his lap. “You’re the only person I know that can use a V8 Harvest and Strawberry Smoothie as a gateway to a parallel universe.”
She shook her head, “I wish I could see into the universe where I passed this history final with flying colors.”
“That’s for sure,” said Jose. “I’ll never remember who came after President McCain.”
“Don’t be such a sexist – President Palin took over after McCain had his coronary two years after he got elected.”
“Right, the first lady...”
“No, it was the First Husband Todd…” she said, adding a smirk.
“I was gonna say, ‘President’.”
Shaking her head, Emily hunched over her own transparent tablet, setting it to project a holographic screen in front of her. Walking her fingers through a manipulation panel, she absentmindedly picked up a celery stick and shoved it into her mouth. After her eyes grew wide, she muttered, “Oh, crap...”
“What’s wrong?” Jose asked. Her tablet began to glow then flames flickered around the edges as she tried to shove the instrument away from her. “You ate the celery!” He exclaimed. “Why did you do that?”
“I wasn’t thinking! I was playing around with tensor calculus…”
“And you opened a door into a parallel universe!” Jose shouted as the fire alarms went off and a robot fireman’s ball floated out from its nook and began to sprout nozzles. “Now we’re gonna…”
An explosion cut him off…
Names: ♀US(California); ♂ US(New York)
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 16, 2024
WRITING ADVICE: Analyzing What Went Into EMERALD OF EARTH *** THIS IS LONG. I KNOW. I ASK YOU TO READ IT...***
In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right” and I’m busy sharing that with you.
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, though someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see!
As my kids and wife will attest, I started EMERALD OF EARTH twenty-one years ago in response to the wave of dystopian science fiction aimed at young adults. Of COURSE there has always been "dark" science fiction -- HG Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS springs to mind!
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, though someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see!
As my kids and wife will attest, I started EMERALD OF EARTH twenty-one years ago in response to the wave of dystopian science fiction aimed at young adults. Of COURSE there has always been "dark" science fiction -- HG Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS springs to mind!
In fact, I was really and truly hooked on science fiction by the grim future in John Christopher’s THE WHITE MOUNTAINS books. Lois Lowry’s THE GIVER came when I was in high school, and Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE rose to the top NOT as teen lit, but as subversive science fiction – not for teens, but for adults who were looking for MORE after rereading the HARRY POTTER fantasies a dozen times.
Then came the deluge of the “book-to-movie” best sellers like THE HUNGER GAMES and MAZE RUNNER following on the heels of what I think of as “teen carnage” novels where, like the Harry Potter series after GOBLET OF FIRE with teens slaughtering each other and being slaughtered by evil adults became normal for YA fiction. Because while they were ostensibly for teens and YA, adults were reading them in DROVES.
There’s been some serious research on this as well: “Why Do Adults Read Young Adult Novels?" Monica Hay, Fellow at Portland State University0 Department of English wrote “Book industries and trade, Publishers and publishing, Young adult literature” (from the abstract): “Young adult books are widely read by adults. Through interviews with publishing professionals and a survey of 2,139 participants, several reasons were discovered regarding why adults read young adult literature.
“In the research, the most common reasons were the influence of Harry Potter and Twilight, the relatability for millennials, the social media presence of YA online, and the success of women writers in the category. Survey participants had more to add. The survey themes were nostalgia, ‘less pretentious,’ ‘faster reads,’ diversity, escapism, ‘less graphic,’ and perhaps most importantly, hopeful.”
So I started to look at a DIFFERENT future than the doom-and-gloom presented by some of the books that adults and kids appeared to be reading.
What if Humanity launched into a serious exploration of the Solar System and it wasn’t just with soldiers and old people? What if the future included young people? The ones would would spend a long time living in space?
I was compelled to give my novel a title that would draw in YA readers expecting carnage in their reading. I changed it to EMERALD OF EARTH: HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES, with the intent of writing a series. And I WILL if sales of the first book go well. came out in March 2024, and while sales haven’t been stellar, I’m doing things like this to boost the signal.
It takes place in a future where Humans have launched into an exploration of the Solar System thoroughly and methodically. Using a hollowed out asteroid called the SOLAR EXPLORER (SOLAREX for short!) as a base, they will spend a year at each planet, probing, landing on, collecting samples, data, and answering questions without having to worry about shipping tiny amounts of material “home” to be analyzed by experts. The experts were right there.
But at one point, I thought EMERALD OF EARTH was boring and would have had a hard time finding advocacy among the more exciting titles (except THE GIVER; that was hardly self-explanatory, nor was THE HANDMAID’S TALE or even Butler’s 1979 masterpiece, KINDRED). Flashy titles had replaced subtle, so I had to do the same.
I came up with EARTH ATTACKED! Ugh. Then I tried LEGACY OF THE WOUNDED WORLDS…Worser and worser!
Finally, I resorted to something I’d never done: I sat down with a thesaurus and the “Legacy” title and found synonyms for all of the words and wrote them on slips of paper. Then I went to a table and began to rearrange them, speaking them out loud countless times until I found one title that held up under the stress of repetition.
HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES. Instead of a single book, though, I suddenly had an idea for a SERIES.
Emerald’s story would be its own story, separate from eleven others but intertwined with them because they all live aboard the hollowed out asteroid SOLAR EXPLORER.
Emerald’s story would be the first of a much, much larger story. I wouldn’t have her defeating Inamma in one fell swoop. She needed to fight for her existence, so I made Inamma smarter than it had been before and more subtle.
Even more though, I needed Emerald to have “kid problems”. She needed to deal with issues every kid on Earth needed to deal with. So I gave her friend problems. She wanted them but couldn’t seem to keep them. But what began as a nebulous, “I can’t get friends”, needed a firmer foundation.
As a guidance counselor, I’d started working closely with several autistic students and had come to understand them just a tiny bit. The ones I dealt with were brilliant – but challenged by the world they lived in. I realized that my growing understanding of these young people might be an aspect of Emerald that I hadn’t really developed.
Once I started to understand Emerald, other things fell into place – things like answering the question: “What do teenagers DO on a spacecraft called SOLAREX, committed to a twelve year mission?” So I had to give them “school in space”. But NOT a clone of “school on Earth”, cloned from a form that came from England with American colonists in the 18th Century.
To tell you the truth, when it comes to school for teens in space, SF writers have TOTALLY lacked imagination!
Star Trek: The Next Generation and ST:DS9 have children and teens going to school and SITTING IN DESKS!!! They don’t even go to a holographic “virtual school” that is identical to what we had during the pandemic as in Michael’s Burstein’s award-winning short story, “Teleabsence”. Yet we’ve fled BACK to kids with butts in seats in schools…because we’ve got this weird idea that PARENTS are incapable of educating their kids and ONLY TRAINED TEACHER can do the job.
As a teacher for 41 years: during which time I taught science 6th grade general science, 7th grade life science, eighth grade Earth science, 9th grade physical science, 10th grade biology, 11th grade chemistry, and 12th grade physics, as well as designing and teaching TWO Astronomy classes – as well as writing classes for gifted and talented young people between 4th and 10th grade – I can tell you that THE BEST TEACHERS ARE PARENTS.
(I’m one of those, too…and a grandparent.)
For science fiction writers, you have Orson Scott Card training children to just “be soldiers” in ENDER’S GAME books. Why is that? I think the Science Fiction world has treated the future of education as if we’d already reached the PINNACLE of “educational technology” here in 21st Century America…I don’t even see SF attempting to include educational theory and practice from other cultures! A quick Google search reveals only that there are lots of articles on how to use SF to teach about science or inspire girls to be scientists. This list / is a good start, but hardly complete – at least I hope it’s not complete.
At any rate, to create an educational system that made sense, I drew from my own experience. One thing I knew for certain was that I didn’t want my teens – and there are 130+ of them on SOLAR EXPLORER – just “going to school” and then “hanging out”.
As important as that activity is, and knowing that I’m not speaking tongue-in-cheek – these young people are not only going to be in space for twelve years, they are going to mature into adults who will in their own time take their places in the operation of the ship. Some will be “promoted” to apprenticeships or leadership positions; some will become menial laborers. Some perhaps will become philosophers, others still recorders, writers, and artisans.
But how do they get there? NOT ONLY just “hanging out” on their cellphones and on social media all the time! That is PART of their education – social and educational media are adjuncts to formal education – but THEY have to be adjuncts of PARENTAL education efforts as well.
Honestly? This society has abdicated our wisdom by waving our kids in the general direction of “teachers”. THAT’S A BAD THING. I’m telling you here that not ONLY have I known absolutely shitty teachers; I’ve known EVIL teachers. You know what else? There are times in my life that I’ve been a shitty teacher myself.
Education in classical literature, mathematics, social studies (including history as well as the social experiment they live in!), physical education, science (duh!), art, and practical skills like programming, global languages, welding, recycling technologies, particle physics, gravitational manipulation technologies, and mass communication and journalism – how do you cover all of these things without sitting the fat butts of these kids down? And we need to start teaching our kids MANNERS – not sloppy adult manners, but a FOUNDATION of manners that EVERY SINGLE SOCIETY ON EARTH HAS.
In my novel, SOLAREX is a tiny, closed society. You might consider it a microscopic section of countries like “Andorra, Luxembourg, Greenland, Norway, Liechtenstein” where “literacy reaches virtually 100 percent.” Surveillance is practically universal (though I touch on the fact that it’s NOT!), so teens will only get into minimal trouble in the ways that they do. As well, there’s an “illicit” athletic outlet (pryzhok) as well as plenty of other things to do. Education is experiential as well as academic. They work on Intensive Training Teams as well as receive homework assignments in the “traditional subjects” we expect teens to study. They also receive tangible rewards as a result of inter-Team competition in both their vocational training and academics. And YES, “‘Vacation days, Leisure Study days and tours, credit chits to buy food at the alternate restaurants and hang outs, mostly.’”
Instructors design educational pathways for students – “He was willing to admit that he’d been a master query marker guide at one time. He’d figure out what someone needed to know then lead them there. After the suicides, he’d adjudged himself a stupid query marker guru, quit, and fled.”
I’m trying to explore ways that we might educate our young people. It SEEMS sometimes like it’s a lonely business, educating young minds. It SHOULD NOT BE. It needs to be EVERYONE’S job…
And it’s no longer seen that way. And from MY perspective, that is ALSO the main reason the Pandemic Distance Education hit our kids so hard…NOT ALL OF THEM THEM…but lots of them.
I put forward community effort on SOLAR EXPLORER as a model for us to return to – and then allow communities to ADAPT TO THEIR KIDS…
Comments anyone?
LINKS: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/eng_bookpubpaper/35/; http://sf.hackeducation.com; http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-highest-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html;
IMAGE: https://www.amazon.com/Emerald-Earth-Heirs-Shattered-Spheres/dp/1958333166/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PMZul37u_A-yH1LfdxoJ_4iBsTIPAa-dcKcAYmv6WDJZJACtYOnZ8toIWHepGLzwDgcwPZa5ySaFTyXxDHB6x85EysrwG8c_Fs_6IxTzQ6L3naz7ZGJ4nJL1UMFwPAR6HPceUFI79nNdKI79TOzkCzNlUM0Fslu7enXSYjoi5shC0EWph5S5EukqRan_LFpafkgVdrt5AriNaxk4v6AWYTRuDaSk_91uYI1tD4ZiQ3s.RSgRAQeOVuHkoEpV9T_vci5uBYmbWChcdjg1uzqkqpw&qid=1713588732&sr=1-1
Then came the deluge of the “book-to-movie” best sellers like THE HUNGER GAMES and MAZE RUNNER following on the heels of what I think of as “teen carnage” novels where, like the Harry Potter series after GOBLET OF FIRE with teens slaughtering each other and being slaughtered by evil adults became normal for YA fiction. Because while they were ostensibly for teens and YA, adults were reading them in DROVES.
There’s been some serious research on this as well: “Why Do Adults Read Young Adult Novels?" Monica Hay, Fellow at Portland State University0 Department of English wrote “Book industries and trade, Publishers and publishing, Young adult literature” (from the abstract): “Young adult books are widely read by adults. Through interviews with publishing professionals and a survey of 2,139 participants, several reasons were discovered regarding why adults read young adult literature.
“In the research, the most common reasons were the influence of Harry Potter and Twilight, the relatability for millennials, the social media presence of YA online, and the success of women writers in the category. Survey participants had more to add. The survey themes were nostalgia, ‘less pretentious,’ ‘faster reads,’ diversity, escapism, ‘less graphic,’ and perhaps most importantly, hopeful.”
So I started to look at a DIFFERENT future than the doom-and-gloom presented by some of the books that adults and kids appeared to be reading.
What if Humanity launched into a serious exploration of the Solar System and it wasn’t just with soldiers and old people? What if the future included young people? The ones would would spend a long time living in space?
I was compelled to give my novel a title that would draw in YA readers expecting carnage in their reading. I changed it to EMERALD OF EARTH: HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES, with the intent of writing a series. And I WILL if sales of the first book go well. came out in March 2024, and while sales haven’t been stellar, I’m doing things like this to boost the signal.
It takes place in a future where Humans have launched into an exploration of the Solar System thoroughly and methodically. Using a hollowed out asteroid called the SOLAR EXPLORER (SOLAREX for short!) as a base, they will spend a year at each planet, probing, landing on, collecting samples, data, and answering questions without having to worry about shipping tiny amounts of material “home” to be analyzed by experts. The experts were right there.
But at one point, I thought EMERALD OF EARTH was boring and would have had a hard time finding advocacy among the more exciting titles (except THE GIVER; that was hardly self-explanatory, nor was THE HANDMAID’S TALE or even Butler’s 1979 masterpiece, KINDRED). Flashy titles had replaced subtle, so I had to do the same.
I came up with EARTH ATTACKED! Ugh. Then I tried LEGACY OF THE WOUNDED WORLDS…Worser and worser!
Finally, I resorted to something I’d never done: I sat down with a thesaurus and the “Legacy” title and found synonyms for all of the words and wrote them on slips of paper. Then I went to a table and began to rearrange them, speaking them out loud countless times until I found one title that held up under the stress of repetition.
HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES. Instead of a single book, though, I suddenly had an idea for a SERIES.
Emerald’s story would be its own story, separate from eleven others but intertwined with them because they all live aboard the hollowed out asteroid SOLAR EXPLORER.
Emerald’s story would be the first of a much, much larger story. I wouldn’t have her defeating Inamma in one fell swoop. She needed to fight for her existence, so I made Inamma smarter than it had been before and more subtle.
Even more though, I needed Emerald to have “kid problems”. She needed to deal with issues every kid on Earth needed to deal with. So I gave her friend problems. She wanted them but couldn’t seem to keep them. But what began as a nebulous, “I can’t get friends”, needed a firmer foundation.
As a guidance counselor, I’d started working closely with several autistic students and had come to understand them just a tiny bit. The ones I dealt with were brilliant – but challenged by the world they lived in. I realized that my growing understanding of these young people might be an aspect of Emerald that I hadn’t really developed.
Once I started to understand Emerald, other things fell into place – things like answering the question: “What do teenagers DO on a spacecraft called SOLAREX, committed to a twelve year mission?” So I had to give them “school in space”. But NOT a clone of “school on Earth”, cloned from a form that came from England with American colonists in the 18th Century.
To tell you the truth, when it comes to school for teens in space, SF writers have TOTALLY lacked imagination!
Star Trek: The Next Generation and ST:DS9 have children and teens going to school and SITTING IN DESKS!!! They don’t even go to a holographic “virtual school” that is identical to what we had during the pandemic as in Michael’s Burstein’s award-winning short story, “Teleabsence”. Yet we’ve fled BACK to kids with butts in seats in schools…because we’ve got this weird idea that PARENTS are incapable of educating their kids and ONLY TRAINED TEACHER can do the job.
As a teacher for 41 years: during which time I taught science 6th grade general science, 7th grade life science, eighth grade Earth science, 9th grade physical science, 10th grade biology, 11th grade chemistry, and 12th grade physics, as well as designing and teaching TWO Astronomy classes – as well as writing classes for gifted and talented young people between 4th and 10th grade – I can tell you that THE BEST TEACHERS ARE PARENTS.
(I’m one of those, too…and a grandparent.)
For science fiction writers, you have Orson Scott Card training children to just “be soldiers” in ENDER’S GAME books. Why is that? I think the Science Fiction world has treated the future of education as if we’d already reached the PINNACLE of “educational technology” here in 21st Century America…I don’t even see SF attempting to include educational theory and practice from other cultures! A quick Google search reveals only that there are lots of articles on how to use SF to teach about science or inspire girls to be scientists. This list / is a good start, but hardly complete – at least I hope it’s not complete.
At any rate, to create an educational system that made sense, I drew from my own experience. One thing I knew for certain was that I didn’t want my teens – and there are 130+ of them on SOLAR EXPLORER – just “going to school” and then “hanging out”.
As important as that activity is, and knowing that I’m not speaking tongue-in-cheek – these young people are not only going to be in space for twelve years, they are going to mature into adults who will in their own time take their places in the operation of the ship. Some will be “promoted” to apprenticeships or leadership positions; some will become menial laborers. Some perhaps will become philosophers, others still recorders, writers, and artisans.
But how do they get there? NOT ONLY just “hanging out” on their cellphones and on social media all the time! That is PART of their education – social and educational media are adjuncts to formal education – but THEY have to be adjuncts of PARENTAL education efforts as well.
Honestly? This society has abdicated our wisdom by waving our kids in the general direction of “teachers”. THAT’S A BAD THING. I’m telling you here that not ONLY have I known absolutely shitty teachers; I’ve known EVIL teachers. You know what else? There are times in my life that I’ve been a shitty teacher myself.
Education in classical literature, mathematics, social studies (including history as well as the social experiment they live in!), physical education, science (duh!), art, and practical skills like programming, global languages, welding, recycling technologies, particle physics, gravitational manipulation technologies, and mass communication and journalism – how do you cover all of these things without sitting the fat butts of these kids down? And we need to start teaching our kids MANNERS – not sloppy adult manners, but a FOUNDATION of manners that EVERY SINGLE SOCIETY ON EARTH HAS.
In my novel, SOLAREX is a tiny, closed society. You might consider it a microscopic section of countries like “Andorra, Luxembourg, Greenland, Norway, Liechtenstein” where “literacy reaches virtually 100 percent.” Surveillance is practically universal (though I touch on the fact that it’s NOT!), so teens will only get into minimal trouble in the ways that they do. As well, there’s an “illicit” athletic outlet (pryzhok) as well as plenty of other things to do. Education is experiential as well as academic. They work on Intensive Training Teams as well as receive homework assignments in the “traditional subjects” we expect teens to study. They also receive tangible rewards as a result of inter-Team competition in both their vocational training and academics. And YES, “‘Vacation days, Leisure Study days and tours, credit chits to buy food at the alternate restaurants and hang outs, mostly.’”
Instructors design educational pathways for students – “He was willing to admit that he’d been a master query marker guide at one time. He’d figure out what someone needed to know then lead them there. After the suicides, he’d adjudged himself a stupid query marker guru, quit, and fled.”
I’m trying to explore ways that we might educate our young people. It SEEMS sometimes like it’s a lonely business, educating young minds. It SHOULD NOT BE. It needs to be EVERYONE’S job…
And it’s no longer seen that way. And from MY perspective, that is ALSO the main reason the Pandemic Distance Education hit our kids so hard…NOT ALL OF THEM THEM…but lots of them.
I put forward community effort on SOLAR EXPLORER as a model for us to return to – and then allow communities to ADAPT TO THEIR KIDS…
Comments anyone?
LINKS: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/eng_bookpubpaper/35/; http://sf.hackeducation.com; http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-highest-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html;
IMAGE: https://www.amazon.com/Emerald-Earth-Heirs-Shattered-Spheres/dp/1958333166/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PMZul37u_A-yH1LfdxoJ_4iBsTIPAa-dcKcAYmv6WDJZJACtYOnZ8toIWHepGLzwDgcwPZa5ySaFTyXxDHB6x85EysrwG8c_Fs_6IxTzQ6L3naz7ZGJ4nJL1UMFwPAR6HPceUFI79nNdKI79TOzkCzNlUM0Fslu7enXSYjoi5shC0EWph5S5EukqRan_LFpafkgVdrt5AriNaxk4v6AWYTRuDaSk_91uYI1tD4ZiQ3s.RSgRAQeOVuHkoEpV9T_vci5uBYmbWChcdjg1uzqkqpw&qid=1713588732&sr=1-1
Labels:
Writing Advice
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 12, 2024
IDEA ON TUESDAY 650
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
H Trope: The Blank (one with no face…)
Current Event: http://patch.com/illinois/joliet/ex-con-charged-blowing-dogs-face-firework-surrenders-cops-0
Laurențiu Gabor pursed his lips and looked over at his partner, saying, “Can we believe them?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Tereza Dalca. “We know the guy blew the face off the dog.”
“Does it follow that there’s a faceless dog roaming the streets of Minneapolis though?” Laurentiu said.
“We can ask the victim and her dead daughter,” Tereza said, “but I’d really rather not call up that psychic again. He gave me the creeps.”
Laurentiu snorted, “He gave you the flu – on purpose.”
She shrugged. “We have to catch the thing before it kills again.”
“I’m open to ideas,” he said, tapping the computer screen to clear the file. “Animal Control hasn’t had any luck…”
“Luck is something you have your financial advisor buy on the Exchange. We’re a bureaucracy – we have to order our stuff after filling out the forms in quintuplicate.”
Laurentiu scowled. “We have to do something. What if the thing’s developed a taste for kids?”
Tereza gripped her lower lip between her pointer finger and thumb, rolling it thoughtfully. Finally she said, “There’s always your nephew.”
“He’s twenty-one now! Not like last time!”
“Yeah, but he looks like a kid. He’d be perfect. We know where the looney blew the dog’s face off. We know where the kid was attacked and killed. So we send your innocent looking…”
Laurentiu snorted, saying, “He’s about as innocent as any other twenty-one-year-old...”
“Exactly!”
Neither of them noticed the pit bull laying quietly on the ground under the dumpster. Neither one of them would have been able to detect the invisible leash or the invisible woman holding the leash unless they’d been looking closely to see the glamour’s shimmer. They would not have appreciated her wicked grin if they’d seen her. They also wouldn’t have appreciated the way she tugged on the faceless dog’s leash – especially because her own face was mostly missing as well…
Names: ♀ Romania; ♂ Romania
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
H Trope: The Blank (one with no face…)
Current Event: http://patch.com/illinois/joliet/ex-con-charged-blowing-dogs-face-firework-surrenders-cops-0
Laurențiu Gabor pursed his lips and looked over at his partner, saying, “Can we believe them?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Tereza Dalca. “We know the guy blew the face off the dog.”
“Does it follow that there’s a faceless dog roaming the streets of Minneapolis though?” Laurentiu said.
“We can ask the victim and her dead daughter,” Tereza said, “but I’d really rather not call up that psychic again. He gave me the creeps.”
Laurentiu snorted, “He gave you the flu – on purpose.”
She shrugged. “We have to catch the thing before it kills again.”
“I’m open to ideas,” he said, tapping the computer screen to clear the file. “Animal Control hasn’t had any luck…”
“Luck is something you have your financial advisor buy on the Exchange. We’re a bureaucracy – we have to order our stuff after filling out the forms in quintuplicate.”
Laurentiu scowled. “We have to do something. What if the thing’s developed a taste for kids?”
Tereza gripped her lower lip between her pointer finger and thumb, rolling it thoughtfully. Finally she said, “There’s always your nephew.”
“He’s twenty-one now! Not like last time!”
“Yeah, but he looks like a kid. He’d be perfect. We know where the looney blew the dog’s face off. We know where the kid was attacked and killed. So we send your innocent looking…”
Laurentiu snorted, saying, “He’s about as innocent as any other twenty-one-year-old...”
“Exactly!”
Neither of them noticed the pit bull laying quietly on the ground under the dumpster. Neither one of them would have been able to detect the invisible leash or the invisible woman holding the leash unless they’d been looking closely to see the glamour’s shimmer. They would not have appreciated her wicked grin if they’d seen her. They also wouldn’t have appreciated the way she tugged on the faceless dog’s leash – especially because her own face was mostly missing as well…
Names: ♀ Romania; ♂ Romania
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 10, 2024
AT MY FAVORITE PLACE:
Labels:
etc...Comments on OTHER Subjects
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 9, 2024
MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 26: NEAR EARTH PASS Asteroids MIGHT TEMPT REALITY!
Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…
“Mining and returning platinum or gold from asteroids could make a person a trillionaire overnight, with the potential to flip our entire economy, trade, and market.”
While this sounds ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC, how realistic is it? Well, according to this article, “…2024 PT5 is part of Arjuna, an asteroid belt consisting of space rocks that follow orbits around the Sun very similar to that of Earth. ‘And for that reason, sometimes they remain briefly trapped in our gravitational field,’ Dr. Cappelluti said.”
Never heard of this asteroid belt? Neither had I: “Arjunas are a group of asteroids that have a nearly circular orbit around the Sun. They also have orbital period of a year. Essentially, they are the Earth’s closest neighbors, sharing the same space around the sun.”
While it seems likely that the Arjunas are asteroids captured by the sun from the general space debris following both creation and collisions in the ancient Solar System, there’s a possibility that they are made of “stuff” that’s similar to Earth in more ways than one. Also, as they follow the same orbit we do, intercepting them would SEEM to be a matter of Earth first “dropping” a cluster of probes and satellites, then setting them in a “station-keeping” orbit to wait until the Arjunas asteroid “catches up to them”, then initiate an orbital insertion and landing on the surface.
Let’s say that the probe discovers deposits of primarily iron, with a few possible traces of the precious metals: gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. A crew of miners were prepared ahead of time and launch. They begin work, seeking the asteroid with robotic micro-miners, swarms of diggers who sniff out the metals. Several months later, they lift from the surface of the asteroid and set a station-keeping orbit with holds laden with iron and other valuable ore.
In THIS scenario, all they’re carrying is metal ore, unprocessed. This would carry two advantages: first of course is that holds full of “rocks” aren’t nearly as tempting to hijackers who would have a long, hard processing road ahead of them instead of flying away with ingots of gold and girders of iron.
Secondly, the crew of the asteroid mining team are descendants of old-Earth-based miners. Skills gained by corporations and individuals and trainers over centuries of Earthly mining, would perhaps be more easily adaptable to space.
The mining and processing equipment itself might not have to be invented from scratch, either, but maybe adapted, set upon by micro-made “builders” who begin with the original Earth-made smelter, then adapted by an AI and retooled from the original into a similar one that might process Arjuna asteroid ores.
While this isn’t exactly “exciting” in a story sense, it’s MORE exciting in a “Hey, this could possibly happen!” sense. There are still chances for story to take place here – for example, what if the “micro-made builders” get out of control? What if their sheer MASS give them sapience? Will environmentalists protest of the “ruining the pristine nature of space, knuckling under the conglomerate mentality of ‘USE EVERYTHING FOR HUMANITY!”?
What if some of the miners hack the AI run mining equipment (or more interestingly, join forces!) to build clandestine colonies on the asteroid and hijack it for themselves?
These and more thoughts, and even thoughts leading to events unimaginable today, await as Humanity and AI leap from Earth and into space…
Today’s Source: https://www.sci.news/space/space-mining-13350.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna_asteroid; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna; https://www.news9live.com/science/arjuna-asteroid-2023-fy3-may-collide-with-earth-within-next-100-years-2408435;
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
“Mining and returning platinum or gold from asteroids could make a person a trillionaire overnight, with the potential to flip our entire economy, trade, and market.”
While this sounds ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC, how realistic is it? Well, according to this article, “…2024 PT5 is part of Arjuna, an asteroid belt consisting of space rocks that follow orbits around the Sun very similar to that of Earth. ‘And for that reason, sometimes they remain briefly trapped in our gravitational field,’ Dr. Cappelluti said.”
Never heard of this asteroid belt? Neither had I: “Arjunas are a group of asteroids that have a nearly circular orbit around the Sun. They also have orbital period of a year. Essentially, they are the Earth’s closest neighbors, sharing the same space around the sun.”
While it seems likely that the Arjunas are asteroids captured by the sun from the general space debris following both creation and collisions in the ancient Solar System, there’s a possibility that they are made of “stuff” that’s similar to Earth in more ways than one. Also, as they follow the same orbit we do, intercepting them would SEEM to be a matter of Earth first “dropping” a cluster of probes and satellites, then setting them in a “station-keeping” orbit to wait until the Arjunas asteroid “catches up to them”, then initiate an orbital insertion and landing on the surface.
Let’s say that the probe discovers deposits of primarily iron, with a few possible traces of the precious metals: gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. A crew of miners were prepared ahead of time and launch. They begin work, seeking the asteroid with robotic micro-miners, swarms of diggers who sniff out the metals. Several months later, they lift from the surface of the asteroid and set a station-keeping orbit with holds laden with iron and other valuable ore.
In THIS scenario, all they’re carrying is metal ore, unprocessed. This would carry two advantages: first of course is that holds full of “rocks” aren’t nearly as tempting to hijackers who would have a long, hard processing road ahead of them instead of flying away with ingots of gold and girders of iron.
Secondly, the crew of the asteroid mining team are descendants of old-Earth-based miners. Skills gained by corporations and individuals and trainers over centuries of Earthly mining, would perhaps be more easily adaptable to space.
The mining and processing equipment itself might not have to be invented from scratch, either, but maybe adapted, set upon by micro-made “builders” who begin with the original Earth-made smelter, then adapted by an AI and retooled from the original into a similar one that might process Arjuna asteroid ores.
While this isn’t exactly “exciting” in a story sense, it’s MORE exciting in a “Hey, this could possibly happen!” sense. There are still chances for story to take place here – for example, what if the “micro-made builders” get out of control? What if their sheer MASS give them sapience? Will environmentalists protest of the “ruining the pristine nature of space, knuckling under the conglomerate mentality of ‘USE EVERYTHING FOR HUMANITY!”?
What if some of the miners hack the AI run mining equipment (or more interestingly, join forces!) to build clandestine colonies on the asteroid and hijack it for themselves?
These and more thoughts, and even thoughts leading to events unimaginable today, await as Humanity and AI leap from Earth and into space…
Today’s Source: https://www.sci.news/space/space-mining-13350.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna_asteroid; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna; https://www.news9live.com/science/arjuna-asteroid-2023-fy3-may-collide-with-earth-within-next-100-years-2408435;
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Labels:
Mining Asteroids
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
November 5, 2024
IDEAS ON TUESDAY 649
Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
F Trope: good vs evil If you’ve never read THE DARK IS RISING sequence by Susan Cooper – you should! (https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Sequence/dp/0689829833)
F Trope: good vs evil If you’ve never read THE DARK IS RISING sequence by Susan Cooper – you should! (https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Sequence/dp/0689829833)
Current Event: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/politics/ukraine-russia-sanctions-us-eu/
This is just an idea day, so read the article above about the possibility of Vladimir Putin reassembling the old USSR out of its original annexed nations.
What if he was training a group of teens and then lost control of them to the demon Blud, who sows disorientation – chaos – wherever he goes… and a group of them met at an abandoned “reeducation camp” east of Moscow…to discover they were avatars of Perun, Morana, Triglav, and Belobog…and didn’t particularly WANT the Union to pull back together? What if they set out to stop Vladimir Putin, who, by all accounts is a devout Christian? What might happen in Russia then... (http://hollowverse.com/vladimir-putin/)...
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Slavic_mythological_figures
Names: All Russian or Polish...
This is just an idea day, so read the article above about the possibility of Vladimir Putin reassembling the old USSR out of its original annexed nations.
What if he was training a group of teens and then lost control of them to the demon Blud, who sows disorientation – chaos – wherever he goes… and a group of them met at an abandoned “reeducation camp” east of Moscow…to discover they were avatars of Perun, Morana, Triglav, and Belobog…and didn’t particularly WANT the Union to pull back together? What if they set out to stop Vladimir Putin, who, by all accounts is a devout Christian? What might happen in Russia then... (http://hollowverse.com/vladimir-putin/)...
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Slavic_mythological_figures
Names: All Russian or Polish...
Labels:
Ideas On Tuesdays
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)